I’ve been asked several times about my labels on both Instagram and YouTube, so let’s talk about labels! We’ll discuss printing your own labels, buying them, and how to sew them on.
Printing Your Own Labels
The very first label I ever used, was one that I printed on ribbon just like the one in the picture below. It looked OK in photos and when you first looked at the item, however, the ink would wash off in the first wash and I was left with a blank ribbon. Not to mention, they were a lot of work to make.
I’m not saying printing your own labels doesn’t work, I’m just saying my labels were terrible. I tried two different methods on several types of materials, and neither of them worked well for me. Sure they were relatively inexpensive, but certainly not worth my time and effort.
The first method was transfer paper. For this method, you buy transfer paper, print your logo or design on it, then iron it onto your cloth. If you try this one, make sure you read the packaging on the transfer paper! You may need a specific type of printer. Using the wrong printer may result in burnt, shriveled up, and melted transfer paper. You don’t want this to happen, it smells awful and cakes onto your printer making it difficult to clean off.
The good thing about the transfer paper method, is that you can design many different types of labels for the various handmade items you crochet/sew/or knit. So you can have vertical labels, or little square labels, pretty much anything you can think of and print. The biggest downside to the transfer paper method was the printer. I had to batch print my labels on my mom’s printer, which was inconvenient for all of us. Another downside was that the logo washed off after a few tumbles in the washing machine. That might not be so much of a problem if you’re gifting your work to friends and family, but it ‘s certainly not good to have a logo-less label when you’re selling handmade items.
The second method I used was the freezer paper method. For this method, you buy freezer paper, print your design directly on your cloth, then iron the freezer paper on it to seal the logo on the cloth. For those who have never used freezer paper, it’s like butcher paper that has a plastic coating on one side. It is different than wax paper, which is not good to use since the wax will melt off on your label in the wash and ruin your clothes.
If you want to try this method, you may want to check out Happy Berry’s tutorial on it. She does and excellent job explaining the method, and it’d be much easier to understand and execute than having me explain it. While I preferred this method to the transfer paper method, it still had its disadvantages. Along with being a work-intensive process, the design washed off after a tumble or two in the washing machine.
Happy Berry tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iAD7EaLTdM
Buying Labels
Overall, printing my own labels was not working out. So I looked up a few companies, including some label makers on Etsy, and decided to buy already-made labels. Initially, I was hoping to get labels in different sizes and styles for the various projects I crochet, but decided to try the one style to start with and test out how I liked them. While there were some amazing labels on Etsy, I ultimately ended up going with Dutch Label Shop for a few reasons: I liked the materials they used, ordering was incredibly painless and easy, the labels are beautiful, and the price was within my budget. Also, I am not sponsored or being paid by this company in any way, I’m just sharing my experience because ya’ll have asked.
I ordered 50 labels in just a plain, two-color design. It was the basic option on their website, and the one that worked out best for my logo. When I got my labels a few weeks later, I loved them! They look amazing, they are soft (which is great when making baby items), and they can be sewn onto any of my projects. I got these labels in September, and have used them on all of my projects. I love them so much, I intend to use these labels forever!
Sewing Labels
There are several way to sew these labels onto your work, but I use three different methods; one uses “invisible” stitching, and the other two use visible stitching that compliment the project. These are somewhat difficult to explain in writing, but I made a video tutorial that shows you all three methods.
So that’s about all I have to say about labels. If you have questions, or just want to learn more about the labels I use, leave a comment. Here’s the link to Dutch Label Shop’s page: https://www.dutchlabelshop.com/en_us/
If you want some free crochet patterns, check out my other postings on this blog. You can also see more of my work by following my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mode.bespoke/
You can also access loads of crochet patterns on my YouTube channel: Mode Bespoke! I post a new video every Thursday!
Thank you all for stopping by!
